Tag archives: reading
Sorry not sorry, but I have many excellent reads this month. Let’s start with The Cicada Tree, a debut novel by Robert Gwaltney with its melt-in-your-mouth prose, is a Southern gothic novel in the tradition of Tennessee Williams and William Faulkner. I was enraptured with the story of eleven-year-old Analeise, a piano protégé living in […]
Montecito artist and general contractor William Dalziel has published his second children’s book, Charlie’s Dream. The latest work is the sequel to his first book Ulma, The Kidnapped Tree, which he launched two years ago. Bill describes his new book as “a story of courage, dreams, and freedom” taking us on a journey of magical […]
I plan on starting the new year exactly as I ended it: diving into a stack of great books. I ended with 150 books for 2021, reading everything I can to help you readers navigate interesting, entertaining, and diverse books, from memoir to thriller to everything in between. Put Shauna Robinson’s Must Love Books on […]
Whether “naughty” or “nice,” I’ve got something for everyone on your list for the holidays. First, Santa Barbara International Film Festival’s Executive Director Roger Durling has a gorgeous coffee-table book called Cinema In Flux: A year of Connecting Through Film, filled with essays and mouthwatering photos of Durling’s movie recommendations, all started during the pandemic. […]
We love good books, and we cannot lie! Choosing which books to give beloved friends and family, however, is not an easy task. With the holidays coming up, here are some staff picks for books that might be worthy of your consideration. For older kids and teens, it’s much more difficult to throw out titles […]
When I first met Santa Barbara transplant Susan Orlean of The New York Times bestselling The Library Book, she had two friendly dogs in tow and was clearly “animalish.” It is no surprise her new book On Animals is a series of essays about our connection (and sometimes disconnect) with animals. With her wry wit […]
Elba Library is believed to have been the oldest library in the world. Historians have concluded it was built around 2500 to 2250 BC in Syria. Although they had giant clay tablets, instead of neatly bound printed paper books, archaeologists still found signs of the tablets being arranged and even classified according to content or […]
Beach reading is heating up as we move into August. Where the Truth Lies by Anna Bailey is a shatteringly emotional story with soaring prose; a page-turning thriller. Set in a remote small town in Colorado, Emma’s 17-year-old friend Abigail disappears, stirring up a town filled with decades-long secrets, fanatics, and racists. Emma forms a […]
The months of June and July have been filled with much of the excitement that we missed out on this past year; however, during these summer months when I finally get to exhale, I enjoy reading. I’m not talking about biographies or articles or historical essays — but rather books. Wonderfully scented and beautifully thought […]
You do not have to be a ballerina, or a dance mom, as I am — quick shout out to Gustafson Studios for managing an end of year, in-person ballet show — to enjoy Georgina Pazcoguin’s memoir Swan Dive: The making of a Rogue Ballerina. Pazcoguin’s rise from ABT Summer Intensive student to NYCB’s first […]
By his own accord, UCSB Professor of Theater and Dance William Davies King has spent a lifetime collecting nothing, which he brought to light in his 2008 book Collections of Nothing. Cheez-It boxes, “Place Stamp Here” squares, hotel door cards, and the little stickers found on fresh fruit are examples of the valueless ephemera that […]
On a pleasantly balmy Tuesday afternoon, somewhere between the way too cold or searing desert heat of our current weather, I had the opportunity to spend some socially distant, in-person, fully masked time with Montecito Union School’s reading specialist, Lynne Olerich. Our conversation included her tenure at Montecito Union, her journey from Rutherford, New Jersey […]
Saying hello, bumping into someone in line, knowing the cashier’s name, seeing people and being seen – these are all components of social infrastructure, studied by sociologist Eric Klinenberg and fleshed out in his book Palaces for the People. These everyday affinities are part of what makes public library life so vital, keeping us civil […]
